1. Community
  2. General
  3. Alternative and Complementary Medicine

How I cured my gastritis

Posted , 375 users are following.

ines6375
ines6375

When I got diagnosed with mild gastritis (but no H. Pylori) and esophagitis, I looked all over the internet to find what to do. I did not find many accounts of people who have cured themselves successfully and how they did it. So I thought I would write my story once I am cured. Here it is. If you have cured yourself from gastritis too, please share your experience below as well.

Many people ask how long it takes to be cured. At first I started on dexilant for a month but I did not see any improvement. After a month I kept taking dexilant and I started the low acid diet in parallel. I got much better in 2-3 days. After two months on dexilant and one month on the diet, I felt completely good. Then I stopped the dexilant cold turkey and got a lot of pain and acidity back in my stomach. Now I regret I did not take the dexilant a little longer as my stomach was obviously not healed and not strong enough to go through the rebound effect of stopping dexilant. I regret also that I did not stop dexilant slowly taking it every other day for a week, then every three days for a week, .... I felt anxious about taking a medication that has so many side effects taken long term and I wanted to stop immediately, which was not reasonable.

Anyway there I was back at the beginning with stomach pain and acidity day and night. I felt pain related to the esophagitis as well which really scared me. I hesitated to take dexilant again but I decided to try to cure myself the natural way. Below I describe what I did. I got cured in approximately two months, getting slowly better week by week. After two months of natural cures I had no stomach pain anymore and no excess acid, I was able to sleep again, felt like a new healthy (and lighter -- I lost a few pounds) person. However after those two months, I felt that I needed to follow the diet another month for my stomach to get strong and be able to handle a less strict diet.

THE CURE

Books

Most of what I did is summarized in two books which I found very useful:

The first book is "Dropping acid: the reflux diet cookbook & cure" by Jamie Koufman. This is the book I based my diet on. The only disagreements I have with the author regard dairy products that I stopped taking as they make the stomach produce more acid (very clear for me), and the use of ginger, manukka honey and aloe vera which I find too irritating and/or acidic (and I don't feel that they help). Also she does not talk about salt which is known to be irritating for the stomach lining in excess, I felt an improvement when I lowered my intake in salt. I will explain the diet more in details below.

The other book is "Ulcer free! Nature's safe & effective remedy for ulcers" by G. Halpern. I know you may have gastritis and no ulcers but the two conditions are related and what cures one usually cures the other too. I used some of the natural supplements recommended in this book. In particular slippery elm (this one is actually not mentioned in the book) and DGL licorice for stomach pain (coat the interior of the stomach lining), Zinc-Carnosine (reduce inflammation and protects stomach lining - I felt a great improvement after starting to take it especially with acid production at night), and cabbage juice (finished my recovery with this one, after two days I had no stomach pain anymore at night). I describe the supplements more below.

What did not work for me

Mastic gum hurts my stomach. It is supposedly helpful against H. Pylori which I knew I did not have (I had been tested).

Prelief removes the acid in food and stomach very efficiently but causes constipation.

Tums works well for 45 minutes but then there is a rebound effect with the stomach producing more acid.

Manukka honey hurts my stomach (Too acidic, Ph level 4, but maybe also because of the tea tree essential oil in it). It is supposedly helpful against H. Pylori.

Aloe Vera is too acidic (around Ph level 4), and I don't feel it is doing anything positive.

Ginger is irritating and I don't feel it is doing anything positive.

Probiotics helps with digestion but not really for the stomach.

Zantac works very well at removing the acidity but makes me feel dizzy and incredibly tired.

PPI worked very well at removing the acidity and pain in my stomach while I was taking it while doing the diet, but I had a bad rebound effect when I stopped (one must stop slowly by taking it every other day for a while). Also having too low acid in the stomach because of PPI might cause problems in the long term (problems with Calcium and B12 absorption, bacterial infection more likely).

39 likes, 3077 replies

3077 Replies

Prev Next
  • tikva
    tikva ines6375

    Posted

    Hi to all.

    I am following this discussion some time now.So now I decited to join and share my experience with my gastritis.

    I have gastritis symptoms 4 years now.

    At the beginnig I had dyspepsia and stomach pains in the early morning.I took ppi lansoprasole 20 mg , but it didnt cure anything.My symptoms were on and off depending on the food I ate during the day. 10 months later I went to GI doc and got pantoprazole 1 month 40 mg daily and 20 mg for 2 weeks.After that medication and tretman I felt very good I think I was cured, and tried to test with any food I can eatI ate chilly, meats, pasta, milk, wine....Sometimes I got a acid reflux, but that was very rare.I was symptoms free for 2 years, and I wasnt on any diet, I was eating normally anything.

    Since last year I started often to get burning sensation very often in my stomach, and decided to try with another dose with pantoprazole.Still I wasnt on diet just ppi 20 mg on day.

    The recovering was very slow..After 2-3 months on ppi and dindt watch my diet at all I woke up one early morning with severe pains in my stomach, and went to hospital that morning.Decited to go for endoscopy.The result was nearly chronic gastritis with duodenditis.Inflamation on stomach and duodenum, from bile reflux.

    The doc prescibed me nexium 80 mg day and control after 3 months.

    Since than I am on diet- diary free, egg free, pork free etc.I lost 9-10 kg in the diet period.After 2 months a reduced my ppi dose from 80 mg to 40 mg and than after a month to 20 mg nexium.In meantime I took zinc carnosine.

    After quitting ppi I use ranitidine 150 mg day.Also I have used cabbage juice for a month.

    Now I am still on 150 mg ranitidine daily and diet, I use also glutamine powder 10g a day.

    So now, I have rearly stomach burning sensaton, never stomach pain, still use my diet. After the endosopy i got this symptom of dizzines, lightheadness and lack of focus.When I lost 4-5 kg at 1-2 weeks it freak me out, since than I had that feeling of dizzy and sometimes is more and sometimes is less.It makes more dizzy and weak feeling when I dont watch my diet.

    So no more stomach pains, sometimes stomach reflux, stomach burning, just weak feeling and lightheadness. Can that symptoms be from gastritis or its something else. 

    • mahesh1976
      mahesh1976 tikva

      Posted

      Hi Tikva,

      Thanks for sharing. It could be way out for other sufferers. Just want to comment on your feeling of dizziness. This could be result of Nexium. I was prescribed 80mg too. It drained me completely in a week. Dropped to 40 and then it was better. It deprives you of essential nutrients. especially Vit D and B12. You may get them checked.

    • tikva
      tikva mahesh1976

      Posted

      I am nexium free a 2 months now. Now i am using ranitidine daily. Yesterday i had pork meat and red wine, had discomfort after meal and took ranitidine, which helped alot.
    • tikva
      tikva

      Posted

      Still i have lightheadness, now sure it is stomach related.
    • daniel_80
      daniel_80 tikva

      Posted

      Some of the meds can cause side effects. Nexium gave me side effects so badly that its took more than a month to recover.
    • ines6375
      ines6375 tikva

      Posted

      Hi Tikva,

      I noticed that when my stomach is even very lightly irritated, I am a little dizzy and my lips are very dry. So I assume I am dehydrated more than usual and I try to drink a lot of water. Could this be what is happening to you?

      Have you had a complete blood test done to check for anemia, thyroid and other imbalances?

      Also ranitine makes me very dizzy and lightheaded, this is why I didn't take it more than twice.

  • ahmad97104
    ahmad97104 ines6375

    Posted

    Hi again, Ines!

    For a week or two, I have been having back pain, mostly in the upper quadrant between the shoulder blades. It's more or less there all the time. It's not deliberating but annoying and very distracting. It's fueling my irrational fear of having pancreatic cancer or something.... I read your previous messages and you said something about back pain as well. Did it get better on it's own or you took some measures?

    Thanks and congratulations on your recovery! I'm sooo jealous right now. biggrin

    • sirivinay1786
      sirivinay1786 ahmad97104

      Posted

      hi Ahmed,

      i li had the same pain and was worried about the same thing. All tests were clear though except for gastritis. The PPI took care of it in about a month time. Don't worry it would be mostly due to the gastritis, it is known to cause such symptomssymptoms

    • ahmad97104
      ahmad97104 sirivinay1786

      Posted

      Thanks for the reply, sirivinay!

      I've been on PPIs from the past 2 months or so. I recently started having this pain. Maybe around 3 weeks ago. I suspect it's either because I slept in the wrong position or something. And it was agrivated when I fell while playing basketball. 

      Speaking of which, I also originate from Pakistan but live in the US. So spicy food is something that we can't live without. haha It's weird though that slighltly spicy food doesn't bother me much at all. I added cooked tomatoes to most of my meals and I feel fine. Even dairy doesn't effect me badly. I sometimes, for no reason, feel bad again. Like stomach cramps and feeling unwell. However, the biggest obstical that I'm facing is my anxiety. I always jump into conclusions with the wost possible outcome. Needless to say it ruins my whole day.

      What about you? What poblems are you facing right now? And what is the diagnosis or your condition? I have gastritis, duedenal erosions, incompetent LES and (very minor) GERD. So my stomach is pretty useless right now. LOL

    • sirivinay1786
      sirivinay1786 ahmad97104

      Posted

      Am sorry to hear of your health issues..I can totally understand and emphathize and pray that you get well soon.

      I was a normal healthy person till October of last year.  Never had heartburn ever in my life. One day in October had severe heartburn which persisted for a week, then somehow it became silent reflux and the GERD stopped. I panicked and went to doc, got PPI's, then did lot of unwanted research on the net and went off PPI's and started treatment with a naturopath. Basically made lot of wrong decisions. He put me on some stupid candida diet (treating me for candida which I never had). I lost 20lbs and that's when my stomach pains started. Went to India in dec coz I couldn't stay in US anymore, was home sick. Doc thought it was my gall bladder due to shoulder blade pain etc. After all possible tests, scans and ultrasound, was diagonized with gastritis ( due to Hpylori), vitamin D deficiency and LPR (silent reflux). Did the 7 day triple therapy for pylori. 

      Now am much better. Most of the stomach pains have gone. But sometimes I do still have stomach cramping if I eat anything I shouldn't. Like you, I can tolerate day to day spices in food that we normally eat. Yesterday I made the mistake of having a doodh pedha (milk sweet) and ended up with cramps now. 😝

      They said my LES is weak too. The weird thing is, my gastro halved my PPI dosage last month. I had no rebound. Basically I feel the same with half the dose, not worse, not better. My gastro said that gastritis can cause all sorts of weird pains in the front and back above the belly button. My shoulder blade pain was annoying too, not severe though. 

      The main thing bothering me now is my throat. I am pretty sure I don't have night time reflux coz when I wake up in the morning my throat feels fine. It's only after that everything starts (I mainly have a minty feeling in the throat, post nasal drip,no pain no burning and rarely lump in the throat). I used to have the lump feeling all the time when I was anxious, going home brought my anxiety down and the feeling mostly disappeared. I think it's very important to bring down anxiety. You have had all tests done right?so try not to worry. It really helps. Divert yourself. It's not easy and sometimes I feel frustrated too but for the most part I try to ignore my symptoms and stay busy. I just got back to USA last week. 

      I heard lot of people using amitryptiline (an anti depressant) in low doses to successfully treat silent reflux. I want to try it as well, just hope it doesn't make my gastritis worse. Have to confirm with doc. In India, they didn't want to take this line of treatment, but am desperate and going to try if some doc can prescribe it for me here. Also, am thinking of trying the cabbage juice cure for the gastritis. Maybe it will help?

      Ultimately it's all about hoping and trying various treatments to heal oneself. 

      My dad, my father in law, grandfather all have been living with and managing gastritis very well for more than 20 years. My younger brother healed his gastritis (Hpylori) and weak LES 3 years ago, with just being normal and anxiety free. He didn't even give up coffee! So have hope and be strong smile

      sorry for the long post!

    • lynne69494
      lynne69494 sirivinay1786

      Posted

      hi sirivinay, l also started with the persistent nausea and tiredness in october, diagnosed a few week ago as gastritus, prescribed ppi for it, not helped a lot, also going to try the cabbage juice, cod oil and vit E.  Re the amimitriptylene. l was diagnosed with intersticial cystitus many years ago, and a standard treatment for it is amitrip, along with other stuff, although it was known as an anti depressant, it was found to calm nerve endings, in bladder at least, so reduced some of the pain and frequency, also helps with sleeping, l think as anti depressant they use 40-80gm, but as nerve end calmer only a small dose needed, smallest dose l0mg, l used to take half 5mg and it helped with intersticial cystitus, not sure about benafits for gastritus, but trying 5mg for a short time might be worthwhile. l also get an off throat at times, not pain or even sore, just a dull ache, at first thought it memory of the scope tube going down, as l opted not to have sedation due to living alone,but still get achy throat at times weeks later, maybe memory of it, or something else. Also agree on the anxiety, my symptoms became severe when l lost my small old terrier, skipped garden in 5min when bringing bin in, she a  rescue dog and l4yrs old, serious health probs, l was anxious and upset day after day trying to find her,usually try not to worry but sometimes  unavoidable

      Feels like lst day of spring today in uk, more upbeat and decentish day so  that helps, Cabbage juice next, good luck

    • ines6375
      ines6375 ahmad97104

      Posted

      Hi Ahmad,

      I had back pain for a while. I thought it might be related to acid reflux as I read that sometimes acid reflux can cause back pain. It got a little better with a chiropractor but did not go away completely. Then I went in vacation and during the vacation it went away completely. Reflecting on it now, It hink it was just due to too much time on the computer, looking at my phone too much and a bad posture in everyday life. I am careful now how I sit on the computer, I try to stay straight during the day, and I try to be careful in which position I sleep (I follow the online advice of the "modern day monk" found on internet). The back pain did not come back (except one day when I sat badly on the computer, which confirmed my theory).

    • ahmad97104
      ahmad97104 ines6375

      Posted

      Whoa... You're right. My backache only starts if I'm on the computer or sitting awkwadly. Last night when I slept straight I felt no pain at all. Even my GP said it was posture related but I was skeptical at first. I've spend crazy amounts of time on the computer after I got gastritis, desperately seeking answers on what it is and how long would it last. and when you're upset, you tend to have a bad posture. 

      Thanks again, Ines. It's really nice knowing there are people in the world that genuinely care for others. cheesygrin

    • sirivinay1786
      sirivinay1786 lynne69494

      Posted

      Hi Lynne,

      Thank you for replying smile I will try a low dose of the amitryptiline then. 

      Sorry to hear about your dog. As an animal lover (I also used to volunteer for an animal shelter back in India), and having lost my 10 yr dog a couple of years back I totally understand how it feels. I agree anxiety makes things worse. When I went home, my anxiety came down and it helped me in feeling better. 

      I just got back from vacation. I am going to try the cabbage juice cure. I will keep you posted on how it goes. 

    • lynne69494
      lynne69494 sirivinay1786

      Posted

      hi sirivinay,  We,ll both see how the cabbage juice remedy helps.  l,m sure th sunshine on your vacation helped along with the r and r.  We are now getting a bit of spring sunshine and milder temps in uk, what a difference it makes, to get out and about without being cold or wet. lve actually done a bit of gardening today being that pleasant out, enjoyed it, but now lve a bad back to go with my bad stomach, never mind, if youve health probs anything that gives you a mental lift and enjoyment helps.

      Just watched marigold hotel on tv last week, judi dench, it looked good, a touch of wish l were there.  

    • sirivinay1786
      sirivinay1786 lynne69494

      Posted

      Yup! Hope the cabbage juice helps.. 

      I went to Las Vegas and the Grand Canyons. The sun was out and bright. I couldnt agree more with you about how a little sun brightens up you day, I can imagine it is even more important to you in UK, as you guys have such cold weather. 

      Keeping yourself busy and diverted helps the most with diseases like gastritis I think. 

      Haha..I havent seen that movie but I am sure you wouldnt have such retirement plans!

       

Back to top
Prev Next

Report or request deletion

Thanks for your help!

We want the community to be a useful resource for our users but it is important to remember that the community are not moderated or reviewed by doctors and so you should not rely on opinions or advice given by other users in respect of any healthcare matters. Always speak to your doctor before acting and in cases of emergency seek appropriate medical assistance immediately. Use of the community is subject to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy and steps will be taken to remove posts identified as being in breach of those terms.